A. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to methods and apparatuses concerning vehicle sensors and more specifically relates to methods and apparatuses concerning a sensor housing.
B. Description of the Related Art
It is well known in the automotive industry to provide vehicles with pinch sensors (also known as anti-pinch sensors) that prevent a door of the vehicle from attaining a closed position when an obstruction, such as the arms, legs, or fingers of a passenger, interferes or obstructs the door. Typically, the pinch sensor is attached to a sensor housing and then the housing is installed onto the vehicle.
Known sensor housings, such as sensor housing 1 shown in FIGS. 5-7, are formed of rubber, typically a thermoplastic olefin (TPO), and include a relatively complex molding. Before the pinch sensor 2 (one example shown in FIG. 2) can be attached to the sensor housing 1, the sensor housing 1 must be opened (shown in FIG. 6) to allow access to the sensor attaching surface 3. This opening of the sensor housing 1 permanently deforms the molding and thus results in a loose fit of the sensor housing 1 to the vehicle.
Known attempted solutions to this problem include applying adhesives and ethylene propylene (EPT) foam in an effort to make the molding stick together. Another known attempted solution is to hand work the sensor housing after it has been installed to the vehicle. Both of these attempted solutions are difficult and costly to apply in mass production and are difficult to quality control.
Another known attempted solution to this problem is to form the sensor housing out of ethylene-propylene-diene (EPDM). The use of this material would eliminate the “memory” effect of the housing opening process and allow the housing to return to its original form. However, the use of EPDM greatly increases the cost of the sensor housing and thus is not a practical solution.
What is needed is a sensor housing and method of using a sensor housing that is simpler, less expensive, and more reliable than known sensor housings.